Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Well, before I commence with a long post about current events, I'll tell my loyal readers that, frankly, if you ever get a chance to date my hubby you really should. He's a gentleman, a good dancer and really knows how to show a girl a good time.

We had such a lovely evening. Beginning early at Bar Divani for a glass of wine before dinner and ending, in fact, back at Bar Divani waiting for traffic to clear a bit before we went home; the entire evening was simply spectacular. For dinner we went to San Chez, a Tapas Bistro. Tapas, if you don't know, are all small plates that are meant to share. We'd never done that before and I had, uh, forgotten my reading glasses so I couldn't read the menu. We ended up placing ourselves in the hands of our delightful server and everything was lovely. Ahi Tuna, stuffed portobello mushrooms, scallops on skewers with bacon and this amazing cheesy artichoke and asparagus casserole. Fantastic from start to finish.

Kenny rocks! It was such a great show. Sugarland was better than I expected and Pat Green was fine. He did what the opening act is supposed to do. Sugarland rocked it hard and then Kenny set the place on fire. 90 minutes, no set breaks at all - all in all it was a masterful performance. Do see him if you like him at all. It's well worth it. The crowd was singing and dancing along for the entire show. Despite his claims that he wasn't going to, Sarge's money maker was definitely shaking. It was too much fun!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Our house - the house we're trying to SELL - needs a new roof. It probably won't pass a home inspection the way it is now so in order to sell it, we'll need to drop another several thousand on a new fucking roof. I guess it's a good thing we took the advance pay, eh?

Here's the bullet points:1. We've dropped our price by over 20 grand since we listed it.2. We had to replace our fucking water heater.3. We've put in a warranty AND an allowance to replace the fucking carpet (God I hate those fucking cats!).4. We have had one serious looker but they have a house to sell first. Good luck with that. It's Grand Fucking Rapids and no one is selling houses.5. We're averaging one showing per week and open house attendance is trending downward.6. We're out in three weeks and the fucking house needs to sell. NOW.7. We need a new fucking roof.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

I don't know what has gotten into me lately. I hate all my clothes. Perhaps it's my birthday because they're all looking frumpy or have me just plain feeling old. I also think that I need to have some dead-serious interview clothes. Can you believe that an MBA doesn't own a single suit? Well, yours truly was just that MBA until yesterday.

We got a tiny influx of cash and I have a job interview next week so I dragged the Sarge to the mall. While there, my finds included a great navy blue suit - blazer and pants that was on the clearance rack for one-third of the original price. As the suit was two sizes smaller than the size I wore two months ago, I tried it on with great trepidation - hopeful it might fit. AND IT DID! I have to try it on with my shoes to see if the pants need hemming but the pants make me look thinner and that ROCKS!

I also scored a second suit in a blue gray color with light blue and light gray pinstripes, two white shells and a long black skirt at Penney's. Blame them for the lack of pictures.

Last night we had another showing of our house (and WOOHOO! according to the realtor the woman L-O-V-E-D it!) so we went to the mall. The Queen got a haircut and a really cute suggestion for a prom hairstyle we can do ourselves and some new shoes and then she and I stopped by Kohls because...well...just because! The boys were playing with daddy and we could do a little shopping in peace.

ASIDE: I've been fairly silent about it but I am very excited about an actual real-live-not-just-dinner-at-points-friendly-Applebees date with my husband tomorrow night. We're going to see Kenny Chesney in concert and I expect the show to be awesome. Now, before you start in on me that it's a country concert, see the iPod post and tell me I'm narrow-minded. I had to pick a show that the Sarge would want to go to and The Red Hot Chili Peppers would not be it. Sarge has seen two concerts in his life (other than high school bands and one trip to the Symphony in La Crosse) and they were both The Statler Brothers. He likes both kinds of music, I guess. Kenny puts on a great show and Sugarland is on the bill as well. It should rock! And, thanks to the cash inflow, I think I'll get dinner beforehand.

So I have a real date. We never go on dates. Ever. And I have been looking forward to it since buying tickets back in February. I've lost just under 20 pounds and am feeling pretty good about that so I wanted to look kind of cute. A couple of weeks ago, when none of my summer clothes fit, I bought three pair of capris (no, I don't wear shorts ever). One brown, one navy and one denim. So I am thinking I'll wear the denim capris but I didn't really have a cute shirt to wear with them. Which brings us back to Kohl's.

Normally when I shop I am picky, picky. If the Queen is along, she often vetoes anything I might find acceptable. Last night at Kohl's however, she was feeling cute and flirty thanks to her new haircut or something. She was agreeable with me for once. "That's a cute shirt!" I would say. And she said "Yes, it is." WHAT?

I must have been feeling cute and flirty too because I picked out this shirt in a lovely chocolate brown color to wear with my denim capris tomorrow night. What do you think?

Since I'd like to think I waste a lot more time online than you am pretty tech savvy sometimes I thought I'd turn my loyal readers on to some cool stuff on the web.

1. Evites. I read about this on another blog and a quick Google Search took me here. You can sign up for a free online account, import your contacts from e-mail (Yahoo was very simple but Hotmail has issues). It's free and it is very easy to use. Pick a theme for your party, pick an invitation style, fill in the details, save and send to your contacts. They RSVP electronically (I hope!) and you're on your way to a great party. I may use them for everything from now on. I plan on following up the formal invites for the Queen's party with e-vites to make the RSVP easier since, so far - no RSVP's. Yes, that drives me nuts.

2. Bloglines. Crikey! I read a lot of blogs. They're a major source of entertainment for me. Bloglines is free and lets you subscribe to the feeds of all your favorites and share them with the world(see my Bloglines in the sidebar? Feel free to waste spend a couple of hours finding out why I'm a blog junkie. It is easy to subscribe (providing your favorite blog has a feed - like me) and so convenient. Instead of checking 30 sites for blog updates, you check one. Updated blogs are in bold so you know right away.

3. Feeds. Yes kids, if you have a blog and I read it, here's where I ask you to, if possible, set it up for an RSS feed. Now, if you use Blogger like me, it's easy enough that even I can do it. That's saying something. Here's how: In the "Settings" tab there's a sub menu called "Site Feed". Click on that hyperlink and in the drop box for "Allow Blog Feed" select "Short" or "Full". "Short" feeds up to 255 characters into a reader like Bloglines with the option to click the headline and go to your full blog. "Full" lets lazy busy people like me read the whole thing from Bloglines and click on to the next bold line when I'm finished. It makes me happy.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Yesterday I officially put a period on my master's program. After several months of frustration with an SAP configuration project, my instructor and I agreed it could be finished. Soon, I hope today, I will know my grade and shortly thereafter receive my diploma. I am overcome by feelings of joy and relief - much stronger feelings than I expected.